


Change of Heart

by Witch_of_History



Series: Change of Fate [2]
Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Past Child Abuse, Past Rape/Non-con, Past Sexual Abuse, Teenage Mother, Teenage Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:41:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25410322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Witch_of_History/pseuds/Witch_of_History
Summary: Mal and her gang have made way for other to join them from off the Isle, proving their willingness to die for a place in Auradon. But now that they aren't the only ones arriving, what new threats could come their way?Friendships will be tested, old wounds reopened. But sometimes those sorts of things need to happen so you can survive.
Series: Change of Fate [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1598164
Kudos: 21





	1. The Sea Three and The Witch

Freddie had been warned about Remedial Goodness, if only because Evie had a soft spot for her as another witch. It took some convincing, but it seemed as though the Rotten Four and her group would be taking the classes separately as to prevent any fights.  _ Smart _ , she thought to herself as she flopped into a chair and put her feet up, popping some gum gently as she stared down their teacher. “So you’re Fairy Godmother?” 

“Correct. Frédérique Facilier, I presume?” If they weren’t alone, Freddie might have cursed her. “Mal has asked that I only call you Freddie, but I know a little of your kind. You deal in secrets and cards, so I assure you that I know the game well enough to make sure you second guess even wanting to play.” 

“Was that a threat?” She quirked her lip even as the old fae didn’t back down. “Interesting. I can see why Mal didn’t simply kill you.” The conversation ended when Uma stormed into the room with her boys on either side and a snarl plastered on her lips. Her eyes gave away her nerves, if only to a trained eye. “So glad you could join us! Fairy Godmother and I were just getting acquainted!” 

Fairy Godmother told them to find their seats before there could be any more delays in her class. I’m going to admit to being unsure of how to teach this when the other arrived, but I promise you there will be no questioning your intelligence in my class. Instead of getting a feel for your morals, this class has been changed into a lesson on how to function in Auradon. What to do if you get sick, what you can and cannot get in trouble for, what the expectations you are to follow  _ mean _ .” Freddie relaxed marginally into her seat. “First of all, each of you is expected to find an activity for after school hours. It can be Fencing for the boys, perhaps the archery club or an art class for the girls. It seems having something to connect you with other people here is helpful during your adjustment period.” 

“You all do sword fighting for fun? Maybe this place isn’t so wimpy after all,” Uma huffed in consideration. She was of course missing the fact that their teacher had specifically said “for the boys” like it was against the rules for girls to join. 

“Sword fighting is restricted to the gym with an adult present, but yes. It is rather enjoyable to watch.”  _ So still a bit sexist, just not as much of a bitch as before _ .  _ I can work with that. _ If the shadows of the room seemed to suddenly flock under one chair, Fairy Godmother didn’t seem to notice if her calm expression was anything to go by. “Freddie, please refrain from using magic while you are here unless you are given express permission. Evie comes here every Wednesday to release her power and if you would like to join, you may.” 

“No thank you. And my abilities are closer to Mal’s, so it's not exactly like I can turn it off. I guess you’ll just have to deal with it.” The look on the fae’s face was so worth the detention slip she was handed two seconds after.

It wasn’t hard to figure out that even with Lin Li as the captain of the fencing team, the boys were easing into Auradon far faster than anticipated. “She’d fit right in with the rest of our crew, honestly. I wouldn’t put her anywhere  _ near _ Bonnie though, they’d either have sex right then and there or kill each other.” The fact that it was Gil who had informed them of this was why Freddie was laughing. 

“Shut up, necromancer,” Uma growled with no bite behind it. They were sitting at the opposite end of the “VK” table because as much as Uma hated Mal, it was the only place they felt safe eating. 

“You’re one to talk, sea witch.” The shot came from the middle of the group and it wasn’t hard to figure out who. Evie was leaning forward with her hand resting on her chin, teeth bared in what was almost a smile.  _ Almost _ . “Freddie, you know you have a place with us if you want it. I can’t imagine they have anything worth you being forced to sit next to rotting shrimp.” 

Harry had a knife to her neck in almost an instant, but the one pressed into his stomach was just as obvious. “Li’le sistar, it's good to see yuu ‘aven’t lost your touch.” He kissed her cheek gently and hissed something in her ear while he was there, pulling away to return to his seat. “Yuu know better than to insult ma captain.” 

His sister shrugged. “She needs to stop making it so much fun if she wants that. Or you know,” Evie teased threateningly, “she could tell me herself.” 

“You two are weird, even by Isle standards.” Freddie rolled her eyes as she turned to assure the shocked Auradon Preppies. “I have two siblings, Gil over there has at least seven by now, and that’s just the open ones. None of us act like that, not unless something’s wrong.” 

“Like your brother sleeping with the one person my gang doesn’t like?” Freddie conceded her point. Besides, this wasn’t meant to be a fight even if Freddie wasn’t a part of the original plan.  _ “We have to make sure he goes back for them _ ,” Gil had begged earlier. She wasn’t meant to hear, but the shadows never held onto secrets long. 

* * *

Uma hated keeping secrets from her friends, but they had their own angels to deal with and she didn’t want to get involved with that. So when a redhead in a wheelchair dragged her kicking and arguing to the water, she didn’t let anyone notice them. “Who are you and what do you want?” 

“I gave up being able to walk,” the girl explained instead of actually answering Uma’s question, “so that I could move between land and sea. Would you like to go swimming with me?” 

“Again, who are you?” It was stupid of her to think that the girl would actually tell, and also tto not realize sooner who she was talking to. The red hair, the comment about land and sea. Not to mention that when the stupid Auradon Princess shoved herself out of the wheelchair and into the water, her legs fused into a tail. “Well shit.” 

The laugh she got in return reminded her of Harry’s siren stories, of women who were thrown from ships and turned deadly in revenge. The ones who laughed and called to you until it was too late to fight back. “My name is Harmony. I am seventeen years old and am so far behind in the line for a throne, they don’t even think of me as a princess. I can not claim the ocean, and no council will let me sit on my father’s throne. Not after I made my choice.” 

Uma wrinkled her nose in disgust before she could catch it. “That’s stupid.” 

“Yes.” 

“Do you care?” 

“No. Why do you?” 

She almost denied that she had any feelings on the matter at all, but she had already shown her hand. “Because your grandfather stole my mother’s throne and now I have no way of taking it back. It doesn’t seem right that everyone keeps denying us our birthrights.” 

Harmony only hummed her agreement and smiled when Uma threw caution to the wind and joined the mermaid in the water. 


	2. Children of Gaston

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I give up on promising anything, life is a hellscape right now and I have little to no motivation to write this shit.

Ben wasn’t entirely comfortable around the son of Gaston, but that was due to the fact that Uma and Harry looked like they would gut him if he even tried to make friends with the boy. So when his study session in the library with Mal was interrupted by Gil, he had to control his breathing to keep the panic he felt from showing on his face. “Don’t worry, Uma said I was allowed to talk to you.”  _ And I failed _ . “Mal can probably vouch for them better than I can, but I was wondering if my siblings could come over. It would probably just be my sisters since Dad would kill Gaston Jr. and Gaston the third before you could get them here, but that’s okay because they wouldn’t want to come since they have to protect our moms and the boys. But my sisters would like it here.” 

Before he could say something stupid in response, like question why Gil had more than one mom if they were in a relationship with Gaston, Mal grabbed his arm. “I will vouch for them, but I can’t promise to change King Adam’s mind. We will do everything we can to bring over the rest of the children on the isle.” 

“Hopefully we won’t resort to breaking the barrier again,” he joked lightly and suddenly Gil was too close for comfort as he stared him down. “Um…”

“I’ll tell Uma you’re cool. She still might not like you, but she’ll play nice. She doesn’t usually say no to me.” Gil backed away quickly and bounced out of the library as if he didn’t have a care in the world, a wide grin splitting his face. 

Mal rolled her eyes at his confusion. “Come on, we should catch your parents in between meetings so they don’t have a lot of time to say no and I can explain everything to your mom. I should have thought to ask you to bring them over earlier, but I wasn’t sure you’d be okay with it. They are the kids of your parents' villain and I….” 

“I wouldn’t be much of a ruler if I asked everyone else to accept the children of their own villains and then kept them on the isle because I was uncomfortable. And besides, the panic in your voice says a lot right now. Is there something you aren’t telling me?” 

She just snagged the keys to one of the school limos while the guards weren’t looking and shoved him into the passenger seat. “We’re going to get into so much trouble, we’re skipping class  _ and _ stealing!” He wasn’t going to stop her, she was too frazzled for that, but he was going to say he protested if it came to that. “Look, I love you and you know that but this is a lot.” She ignored him as she started the engine and tore out of the parking lot. “Do you even know how to drive?!” 

Finally, she looked at him. “Kind of.” She grinned as she got them on the main road and headed towards the palace. “We hotwired the De Vil car a few times and I understand the principles. I even looked up a few traffic laws recently, but that was mostly because I expected to be driving one of these through the barrier to free our parents.” She paused at a red light. “Oh and while we’re talking of bringing people over, you should get Carlos and Jay’s cousins. And Bea, Carlos’ cat, if his mother hasn’t found and skinned her already.” 

“Wait, they have family on the isle? And there are animals?” Each time the VKs casually brought something up like he should know about it, he always felt like he was on a roller coaster and suddenly it started going backwards. 

Mal hummed her affirmation. “Carlos has Diego, he’s a bit older which is probably why he’s not on the list, the first generation isn’t really documented all that well. Jade is younger though, she’s maybe fourteen now? She’s actually Aladdin’s half sister too, which should help.” 

“What?!” The rest of the drive to the palace was spent with Mal explaining exactly who was sent to the isle and the fact that some of the stories that had been shoved under the rug to prevent scandal. Of course Ben knew that Cassim was a criminal, but he honestly believed that he was living a modest life in Agrabah out of the public eye. However, the story of Jafar’s sister was apparently shoved under the rug in favor of showing strength. “So Jafar’s sister and Aladdin’s dad…” 

“Are married. Kind of. It's like an unofficial official thing. At the very least your dad should know about it since he would have participated in covering it up to prevent a scandal. Evie looked it up when we got here.” Mal’s words were enough to worry him, but the fact that her eyes were glowing slightly and her knuckles were cracking from the force of her grip on the wheel forced his stomach into his throat. 

_ No more secrets. _

* * *

When they arrived, Cogsworth was furious in the kind of way he always was when it came to people not being where he expected them to be when he wanted them to be there. Not to mention the mouthful of blustering he spouted when he realized they had “borrowed” a school limoscene. “Ms. Mal, I would have expected better of someone who was taught by Fairy Godmother and King Benjamin!” 

“That’ll be all, Cogsworth,” he dismissed with as little emotion as he could. If he hid his feelings, adults tended to listen to him more even when they forgot exactly who he was. They made their way to the study his parents were sure to be in, fielding calls from the school and possibly from the press about their abrupt absence from school that they had (finally) noticed. When he opened the door for Mal, he cut off his father from demanding the guards find them and gave his mother his best professional smile. “Hello mother, father. I do apologize for this impromptu meeting, but I received a request that needs our immediate attention.” 

His father’s face turned an interesting shade of red that he almost wished he could get a picture of for Evie as he slowly stood from his chair. “What could possibly be so important that you  _ stole _ —”

“Borrowed,” Mal coughed into her hand much to Ben’s amusement and his parents' chagrin. 

“— _ stole  _ a limo and dragged quite the fiasco behind you?” His father leaned forward on his hands, much in the way Ben had seen officers do in interrogations on the television. “A cop followed you here because you were speeding and neither of you even noticed. Thankfully it was only five or so miles over the limit, with the fine paid there will be no further repercussions on your license. Dealing with the fallout of your dramatics is far easier when  _ police _ aren’t involved.” 

Ben waited momentarily to see if his father was finished with his outburst before promptly ignoring it all together. “Gil, son of Gaston, approached me in the library today to ask if we could allow his sisters to be brought over soon. Mal believes it should take precedence and so do I. She is afterall a representative from the Isle.” 

While his father looked to be building himself up into a rage, most likely over the name alone, but his mother falling to the ground on her knees kept him quiet. “Please tell me there aren’t many, I couldn’t live with myself if...the way he treated and talked of women, of what he would do if I produced a daughter…” He shuffled awkwardly when she turned to him and looked over at Mal, who had reverted back to the uncaring facade she had first worn when they were brought over from the isle. That alone was enough to send his mother into a fit of sobs, and he rushed forward to help her into a chair once the surprise wore off.

“He has twelve children that I know of, took him a while to get what he wanted.” The way Mal spoke was robotic and factual, her eyes glazed over slightly. She hesitated as her voice cracked and she started to sway. “I think his last son was born right before we left.” 

Ben frowned in confusion over the math running through his head, considering most of the women on the isle would be in their late forties early fifties at least. And with the living conditions….

* * *

He got his answer when they arrived three days later. Uma and Jay had gone with the guards to collect them, infact demanded that they be allowed to go, while the rest stayed to cover their absences. It was a rushed operation that was being kept quiet from the rest of the world, including those on the isle. Only Gil’s oldest brother was to be told for the rest of their safety. Even when they arrived, the VKs had made sure the plan was for them to be brought to the hospital and to be checked before anyone was allowed to see them, which was why Ben found himself gripping Mal’s hand tightly and hugging Evie with his free arm, trying not to throw up. 

All of the girls looked feral, especially in the clean white gowns they’d been given. They weren’t dirty or as malnourished as he expected, but even from a distance he could tell each of them had mats in their hair and their wrists were covered in rope burns up to their elbows. They had glazed expressions, not daring to look up too often like even the dimmed lighting was too much. All but the youngest were huddled around the one who had come in with a trash bag and had bit a guard when he tried to hold it for her. She was the only one they hadn’t gotten a chance to examine. 

“Nine girls in total, the youngest only four and the oldest nineteen,” someone was reporting off to his left, but he couldn’t pull his eyes away from the viewing glass to see who. “In total, three of them are pregnant and I wouldn’t be surprised if DNA came back and a few of them were born from their older sisters. The youngest clearly is, though we aren’t sure which one is her mother.” 

Any further information was cut off by the door to the other room opening and the little one sprinting back to her sisters with what little teeth she had bared. “I haven’t changed  _ that _ much since you last saw me, have I?” 

“Brother?” The tallest of the group broke away and inched towards Gil until her eyes adjusted. “You’re alive!” she cried out in amazement and launched herself into his arms, even though she was as tall as he was, and pampered his face in kisses. “Alive, alive, alive!” The other girls brightened too as they slowly broke away to check him over and kiss him too, the youngest just holding her hands up expectantly. “Explain.” 

Gil shook his head as he tugged on the only redheads bangs softly. “First I must fix your hair. You are to be presentable for his majesty when he comes to see you. I asked him to bring you here and he did so you have to let him say hi, alright?” 

“No. He will take,” the girl with the trash bag said from her position in the corner. When he tilted his head in confusion, she motioned him closer. “Junior loses finger, but not loses promise.” She pulled the edges of the bag away only when Gil was blocking their view. One of the nurses moved to the door as if to go look, but Mal shook her head. “Baby must stay.” 

_ The baby boy Mal was talking about, that must be him _ . “The baby will stay, Ben is very nice. Uma doesn’t hate him and he will not send us back. He doesn’t like Gaston so he will not send Fifth back.” 

“Promise?”

Gil didn’t answer as he just moved oddly before turning to face the one way mirror with a sleeping baby in his arms. “He must go to the witch so we know he is okay, but he will come back.” Once the nurse had retrieved the baby for a check up and had brought a set of brushes for the girls, now that they weren’t aggressive, he sat the girl with the worst mats down in one of the chairs and started untangling what he could. “You know Uma taught me how to do braids when I was a girl. She sometimes still lets me do her’s if I ask nicely.”

**Author's Note:**

> Note: This will not be regularly updated.


End file.
